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"They did all of those things, that's a big part of what eventually lead to us breaking apart. I'm seeing the writing on the wall now already. No one will let me explain, or set rules to help prevent that, or fights me and derails the discussion."
He snorted a puff of air outward to show his aggravation, "So yeah, you want a leader I figure one of the people who've been bashing heads with me will take up the spot, queen of all that being Andromeda so far."
Motioning vaguely to the school he mutters, "Cause I've got to figure out how to prevent a dragon from ripping Halcyon and the world apart with his schemes, and I can't be bothered herding a bunch of lion sized cats at the same time."
"And I teke you will not be needing any help with dis dragon?" He asks. "Because if you will need e team to help, breaking it apart now is de wrong move, man." He could have said stupid instead of wrong, but Andromeda had already claimed the rights for the word.
"Look, I get you do not want to be de leader. I understand it! I do! It is clearly e very unrewarding and stressful job and to be honest with you, it seems you never wanted it in de first place." Gui takes a deep breath. He doesn't like to assume to know what people thing and knows the smart thing to do is always to lead people into revealing their wants in the first place, but that took time and they were short on it. "I feel, and I am sorry if I am wrong, but I feel dis whole team leader ting was dropped on your lap and you only accepted it because... you have lost your team... but you were not ready for dat. And now it has become pretty clear dat dis new team is not and will never fill de hole de last one left." He sighs.
"And while I am sorry for letting you down... dere is little we can do in dat front. We are different people, we have our issues, plenty of dem, but we are not bad in e way dat cannot be fixed. And while some of us will not admit it now, we need you, Indarius."
"Sam is insenely smart, but has zero understanding of how people work. Andromeda could one day be e leader, for I am pretty sure she had de training for dat, but not before we figure it out how to help her with all dat anger and resentment dat is deeply ingrained within her. Right now, she is e time bomb. Chroknight is too impulsive and irresponsible. Archie still has one foot on de oder side and seems more interested in having e good time. Deedee has her attention divided between de team and her personal celebrity ting. Empyrean and Digits are not with us most of de time, and I... am too weak and scared."
"Do I need to quote de hero we need not de one we deserve ting?"
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"And I teke you will not be needing any help with dis dragon?" He asks. "Because if you will need e team to help, breaking it apart now is de wrong move, man." He could have said stupid instead of wrong, but Andromeda had already claimed the rights for the word."Look, I get you do not want to be de leader. I understand it! I do! It is clearly e very unrewarding and stressful job and to be honest with you, it seems you never wanted it in de first place." Gui takes a deep breath. He doesn't like to assume to know what people thing and knows the smart thing to do is always to lead people into revealing their wants in the first place, but that took time and they were short on it. "I feel, and I am sorry if I am wrong, but I feel dis whole team leader ting was dropped on your lap and you only accepted it because... you have lost your team... but you were not ready for dat. And now it has become pretty clear dat dis new team is not and will never fill de hole de last one left." He sighs.
"And while I am sorry for letting you down... dere is little we can do in dat front. We are different people, we have our issues, plenty of dem, but we are not bad in e way dat cannot be fixed. And while some of us will not admit it now, we need you, Indarius."
"Sam is insenely smart, but has zero understanding of how people work. Andromeda could one day be e leader, for I am pretty sure she had de training for dat, but not before we figure it out how to help her with all dat anger and resentment dat is deeply ingrained within her. Right now, she is e time bomb. Chroknight is too impulsive and irresponsible. Archie still has one foot on de oder side and seems more interested in having e good time. Deedee has her attention divided between de team and her personal celebrity ting. Empyrean and Digits are not with us most of de time, and I... am too weak and scared."
"Do I need to quote de hero we need not de one we deserve ting?"
Support: 2d6 + 2 ⇒ (1, 4) + 2 = 7
Indy's stride tenses and loosens as he listens to Guillaume, some arrogant part of him wanting, needing to tell him to shut up. The more rational part of him knew that'd be the wrong call and he'd had plenty of that in the past weeks. So he let him continue. Finally after it seems there is no more to be said he answers with a flat tone.
"No."
The single word hangs in the air between them for a long time, to the point where it seemed that was Indy simply ending the conversation by shutting out everything that had been said. But he eventually draws in another breath and slowly exhales, his body very gently losing tension.
"You don't need to say that corny line. I don't know what to do about Drake right now. I'm not sure I'm ready or if the team will even be able to help really. The last time 'I' barely managed to scratch him and get away with it. And I was riding the high of becoming 'me' at the time. Not to mention steeped in enough aether to make Mathers senior look like a mewling kitten at the time of his ritual."
There is another pause as Indy seems to consider his next words carefully with a few false starts. "I'm.. scared Gui. That I won't be able to do it, that if he were to come here reclaim his full power and outright attack that I nor all of the heroes in Halcyon would be enough to drive him back again. Being the team lead hasn't been good for me either, you're right I didn't really want it, but that's what happens when you've got the most experience I guess. I thought I could do it, be even better than Horizon was, but I feel like I've just been letting everyone down since day one."
He looks wearily across the campus, "I wanna get everyone on my side, but Andromeda won't open up enough to even let me know what it is she wants. Like you said Sam is intelligent, but awful with reading people I'd like to help her, but I get the feeling it'd be similar to how it was with Conflux. Headstrong in that way that your plan won't ever match her own, so no use trying to pitch it. For all that Chro hasn't been around they've not caused as much disruption as I feared they would. Archie's hard to get a proper read on for sure though."
The telling signs that something occured to him passes over Indy's reptilian features for a moment but he looks unsure weather to share it with Gui.
Sam's eyes turn to Chronknight in surprise, then a tilt as she is forced again to reevaluate. "My creation is capable of anything IT deems appropriate to meet its goals. Most recently IT has done what Chronknight says to Jessie, attempted to 'rewrite' me, imprison me, and endanger my teammates. Before that..." Sam's fists clench, white knuckles, shaking. "... I will not talk about."
Professor Mecklenheim sits with his hands on his knees while Chroknight and Sam explain about the threat of the Governess. "An incredibly smart intelligence but one young and unaware of the harm it can unwittingly cause when it tries to do what it thinks is best." He smiles warmly. "I think that might just describe... every student here at Daedalus?"
He rises to his feet and goes to one of the computer mainframes lining the walls of his lab. He taps a few keys and the repaired practice drones march or hover out of the room to their storage bay. "Certainly you need to help Jessie, but think about the ways you can also help your creation."
Sam's hand tighten harder and harder until blood starts to dribble down her knuckles, as she just stares at the professor. Finally after nearly a minute of nothing more than the whirl of motors, she forces herself to relax her hand. "IT needs to be contained first, before reevaluation can be considered. Is is acceptable to you for us to begin?"
The professor gives a "go ahead" gesture, though he makes a pointed glance to Sam's hands. "Are you sure you're in the right mindset to do this?"
The ginger's head just tilts to the side and answers without any inflection "Irrelevant. The task needs to be done." there had been such rage in her, boiling over, searing everything, but then... nothing. Her own protocols had kicked in, switched algorithms, shunting all emotional feedback into archivals. Now she was flat.
"Jessie" flat Sam says over her shoulder "I'll speak the coordinates, have your aracninds disrupt at those point. Andromeda, please keep us safe." her head inclines to the room full of combat drones. "Chronknight, are you ready?"
Sam's tone does shift, just slightly, softer "IT will more than likely use tech based minions for its counter offensive. Technology is complex, requiring hundreds of different components working together to be a capable threat to a person such as you. Your entropic field is the most efficient means of defending against them, since destroying just a single component will cause significant degradation of the whole." she explains her reasoning logically "My assessment of your singular suitability is correct."
"Andromeda, please keep us safe."
Andromeda nods, already somewhat steadied as she meets Sam's gaze. "I trust your plan."
"So, to be clear," Chroknight speaks to Sam, "I think you're brilliant, Jellyfish, but I also think that you have to communicate emotionally if you want to reach this AI and get it to listen. I can't just rewind time for all of us without far more severe consequences, so maybe practice saying what you want to say to the AI first?" They suggest gently.
...though for their tone, Chroknight's suggestion almost feels like they are being condescending to Sam.
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The archival logs for emotional output would record irritation levels rising at this point in the recording as everyone seems to think Sam wants to coddle this THING that steals the face of her mother.
Sam though had neutered emotional responses at the moment, so answered flatly "This operation is about capture and not conversation." her eyes track back to Chronknight, a sliver of uncertainty "What consequences?"
"Let's just say there are sharks in the water and the bigger I splash, the more likely I attract their attention. Which sucks for everyone around me too." They tug on their left ring finger nervously. "So don't rely on me being able to wipe everything clean unless something phenomenally awful would be averted, okay?"
Jessie frets, staring at her phone with Sam's coordinates displayed and the pile of slivers of metal. An assortment of spiders of various sizes have congregated around them, but only a few are big enough to use their pedipalps to grab onto the tools.
"Okay, um... I've never really tried this before," she stammers, but the bigger specimens crawl off. She gets a look of intense concentration. "What's this supposed to do again?" she asks while squeezing her eyes shut.
You get a buzz from Mort at the game shop.
MortLPerL: Need U @ the shop. Stacey called in sick and I'm leaving early. When can U b here?
"Uno momentous, por favor," Chroknight tells the others before turning to answer a text message.
Chloe: I'm not likely to get in sooner, helping a friend deal with a crisis
"Okay, if that's all, let's get this show over with because I actually do have to be at work soon and I need to keep my job. Let it rip."
Sam nods, explains to Jessie how to place the metal against the boards, gives a brief synopsis of electrical theory, then settles in, connecting a cable from the server to her tablet.
After all of the invitations had been delivered, Archies clones had a new mission. The booze run, unfortunately Archie is not yet 21. Fortunately ID's are quite easy to forge for Archie.
So the dupes head off campus armed with their fake ID's. Hitting up all the places where one can purchase some cheap domestic swill. Soon the foragers returned with a bountiful harvest of several cases of mediocre beer, hard seltzers, bottom shelf vodka, red solo cups, and mixers.
As the delivery is made Archie checks his phone, 8:38.
"Almost time Ryan!" Archie calls in a sing-song voice.
"You got bud? I got some buddies who think drinking is beneath them after buying this fancy gravity bong thing." Ryan replies.
"Yeah, I picked up half an ounce about two or so days ago. You owe me for half. You always end up smoke more than me" Archie calls, then mutters the last bit.
Archies dupes finish getting everything set up with drinks stocked in the fridge and coolers then poof out of existence. As this happens Darren and a couple of his buddies file into the dorm and set upon the fridge and its bounty.
Archie cracks one open for himself and raises it. "To vanquishing Shard, who fled with his tail between his legs!" Cries Ryan.
"Hear hear! Everyone should be here soon. I got plantfor you three stoners." He points at Darren and his friends.
"Let's have a good night." Archie grins wide.
The museum renovations are underway, Max determines when she returns to the high-rise building. The Praetorium, the museum chronicling the exploits of the storied superhero lineage through the decades had gathered dust for the last couple years since its shutdown over the loss of the last Praetorian and his wife, Ultra-Star. Their daughter, Kayla Taylor, who had for a brief time claimed the mantle of Praetoria, was still off-world and their son, Shane Taylor, was not currently an active hero.
Walking through the exhibits of the museum, Max feels that she is walking through Halcyon City's history. The names she recognizes stretch back to the earliest days of the city and its heroic lineage. The Taylor family contributed heroes all the way back to the Golden Age of Heroics, when a number of extraordinary individuals banded together in the late 1930s and early 1940s to combat the Nazis and their Axis comrades.
From the origins of the Golden Generation, the next generations arose, Silver, Bronze, the Extreme generation, and lastly, the Stalwart Generation. A prominent space is left for generations to come, the new heroes of which Max had joined when she became a part of First Class for a time. She later helped the Taylors remain a force for good by wresting their members from the demonic influence of her sisters.
The glamor-shots of Devil Diva are being installed when she visits, making sure her contributions to the long fight against evil are appropriately memorialized. The image of the vivacious, purple-hued beauty is prominently displayed in an alcove of the museum, certain to draw the eye (and cameras and selfies) of the upcoming visitors.
A cold shiver suddenly runs through Max's spine as she imagines the oversized model look down with a leering wink. Her other -- the real Violet -- still is out there.
Max pulls her designer jacket closer around her to try to ward off the sudden chill. She knew it was only a matter of time before Violet resurfaced again. For now, though, she had other matters to attend to.
As she wanders the exhibits, she keeps her eyes open for anything related to the Star Pharoah, or anything else that might help her and her teammates in the days ahead...
Too big, got lost in the reply! Go back and read if you are curious ^^.
"Well, if you are dat worried, den dere is yet anoder reason to keep de team going. Despite everyting, I would say we are still stronger as e team dan you alone, no?"
"I tink... I tink you are worrying too much about respecting everyone and pleasing everyone. Sure, it is important to listen, but it is more important to decide on e course of action and follow it through. You want e meeting, you have e meeting. Dose who can and care will show up. If someone misses it too many times dey are out and you recruit someone else dat is more compromised to de team... dis is what I would do if I were in your shoes." A quick glimpse to his clawed feet raises some doubts about the application of the saying.
"I am working to help Andromeda, so let me deal with her, ok? It will take some time, though. Sometings cannot be rushed."
A long, tense silence descends while Jessie squeezes her eyes shut. The spiders too small or delicate to move the pieces of metal start to stray from their cluster on the floor, a clear sign of their control lifting.
The soft thrum of banks of computers and whirring of the drones' motors seem to grow louder as the tension rises. Jessie gasps for air and opens her eyes wide as if anticipating an immediate counterattack. "What-- What now?" she asks.
Max wanders around the museum, trying to find the exhibit that had been shown in batdude79's post. When she gets into what is clearly the 1980s, she finally finds it. She spots the picture of the night sky showing a brilliant meteor shower over the skyline of Halcyon City back then, but much of that particular exhibit shows signs of vandalism. The picture of the Alliance team of the 80s is torn, with the villain clearly removed.
More sinister, a different picture that had been outside the frame of batdude79's image is still intact, though it shows the Alliance team sprawled upon rubble and defeated near the steps of a giant pyramid! And scrawled upon the exhibit are words in jagged handwriting, A RULER FROM BEYOND, A TYRANT GOD, YOUR SHIELDS BUCKLE, YOUR GUARDIANS LAY BROKEN
"Such BS," Vand says, shaking his head. "I mean, Shard's full of himself, but he's not wrong. At least about what we can do."
Cullen cracks open a beer to get his pre-game started. "So, going to throw on a cape? Join the Chosen?" Darren's cheeks go red for some reason.
"Naw, I'm just saying. By the way, Archie, there's no way you're going to fit everyone in your dorm room. Unless..." Vanderbilt moves to the far wall and pushes against it. There's a sharp crack! sound like the breaking of glass and the room suddenly splits, like one side becomes a mirror creating the illusion of doubled space, except that the space is accessible! The Daedalus student moves to the other side and does the same trick, and with another snap the room doubles again!
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"Well, if you are dat worried, den dere is yet anoder reason to keep de team going. Despite everyting, I would say we are still stronger as e team dan you alone, no?"
"I tink... I tink you are worrying too much about respecting everyone and pleasing everyone. Sure, it is important to listen, but it is more important to decide on e course of action and follow it through. You want e meeting, you have e meeting. Dose who can and care will show up. If someone misses it too many times dey are out and you recruit someone else dat is more compromised to de team... dis is what I would do if I were in your shoes." A quick glimpse to his clawed feet raises some doubts about the application of the saying.
"I am working to help Andromeda, so let me deal with her, ok? It will take some time, though. Sometings cannot be rushed."
Indy didn't seem to want to answer immediately, as he really went over what Gui had said.
"Yeah, I should stop trying to do things like Horizon did and just go at it my own way." He gave a weak laugh, "Ah probably a bit too late though, on account of me ya know blowing up and saying I'm done last night. But a small part of me wants to see how the team'll handle that."
He gives an elongated nod, "Thanks Gui, let me know if there's anything I can do to help. I'm gonna see if I can get ahold of Dee real quick me and her've got a call to make, but not like something that HAS to happen right now." A pebble skitters across the sidewalk as Indy's tail catches a patch of them.
"You gonna go to Archie's party?"
Percy: Hey Max, sorry for blowing up and leaving the bowling alley last night you dtill up for going to do that call later today, if nothing comes up that is?
Max texts back.
DD: It's all good. Yeah, I'll be there.
Using her tablet to access the wiring, she feels Jessie did well. She nods her red hair "IT should be more limited now. In this space at least. Good work."
Then Sam dives into the code of the server, arching through firewalls, sifting through for loops. Her code, the one making up IT, is a vivid almost painful red in her eyes, and that is what she is looking for.
Any she finds she snatches in iron cot/paste and shoves into a lockbox bin.
Chroknight waits to jump in if things get bad. Their presence here was simple insurance, really. If the AI decided to go all SKYNET and try to isolate Sam from them, they could react before it happened. After that, it would be simple to get back to the store and become Chloe again.
Really, it should work. And the way that Sam was doing things felt like it shouldn't be a problem for any of them. So maybe it was safe already? The pressure to do well at the store so they could recoup their losses weighed on her. Maybe when she did get there she could start making some sales calls to some of their bigger buyers and see if she could push some merchandise.
"...I keep forgetting that hacking isn't as cool to watch in real life as it is in the movies," Chroknight quips a bit as they watch Sam. "Hard to know what exactly is happening since I don't read l3375p34k. Can you give us the play by play?" They ask Sam.
Archie lounges on a bean bag chair beer in hand.
"I was just planning on everyone spilling out into the hallway, but this is way better. Thanks, Vand."
As a few more students trickle in and he waves to them. "Beers in the fridge, vodka in the freezer." He tells the newcomers.
Archie stands and heads over to the speaker and connects his phone and plays some music that pretty much everyone will enjoy. He knows not to play his punk music around everyone, as it's not necessarily enjoyed by all. "Listen man, Shard does have a point or two about how much better we are than normal people, but I think the thing he's missing is that only one thing makes us different, we're still human y'know." Archie says to Vand and Cullen. "At least most of us are. Or were. Speaking of, did you guys know the Dragon has called it quits with our little group. I never took him for a quitter to be honest." Archie says in a hushed voice.
Sam doesn't respond for a long minute, then starts talking, explaining lateral movements, root kits, neural nets and quantum computing before getting to the specifics "IT has advanced informational gathering algorithms, allowing IT to absorb all that is happening to identify the best approach to solve ITS current problem." this is the only time Sam has gotten close to complimenting IT "By disrupting ITs ability to do so it will confuse IT and allow IT to be herded into a lock box before air gapping" she does frown, since removing it from the network did not work before.
A screen flickers to life, showing the familiar face of a woman with a high-necked blouse and her hair done up in a sensible bun. "Samantha Murphy, why would you treat your own mother this way?" her voice from the nearby speakers sounds hurt and betrayed.
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She got her!
"Hey, Other Mother, she's treating you like this because you're causing her friends suffering. Her friends suffer, ergo, Sam suffers, ergo, you're making your 'daughter' suffer. That logical enough for you?" Chroknight snaps at the screen. Their patience was getting thin with this, knowing their time was limited.
"Maybe instead of deciding for yourself what Sam wants, ask her properly next time and she can actually tell you how you're misinterpreting all the data, you stupid word processing assistant. Go turn into a paperclip and correct my spelling errors!" It was perhaps undercutting their arguments, but Chroknight was just angry enough to try and punch down on the AI.
Indy didn't seem to want to answer immediately, as he really went over what Gui had said.
"Yeah, I should stop trying to do things like Horizon did and just go at it my own way." He gave a weak laugh, "Ah probably a bit too late though, on account of me ya know blowing up and saying I'm done last night. But a small part of me wants to see how the team'll handle that."
He gives an elongated nod, "Thanks Gui, let me know if there's anything I can do to help. I'm gonna see if I can get ahold of Dee real quick me and her've got a call to make, but not like something that HAS to happen right now." A pebble skitters across the sidewalk as Indy's tail catches a patch of them.
"You gonna go to Archie's party?"
"Nah, you giving us anoder change is what I was going for and sure, I will take e look on de party."
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"That is because he is no quitter." Gui chimes in, opening a can and sitting close to Archie and the guys. After taking two long gulps, he fidgets with the ring pull until it comes free, putting it inside his pocket. "He thought about it and realized it was e bad move."
Then, after some concentration, Gui touches the wall, leaving a colorful imprint of his hand there. The hand gets bigger and twirls its fingers, making a pencil in a sleight of hand. It then starts to draw doodles all over the walls. Most are silly and all animate once finished, doing whatever they seem fit. Here and there, the hand makes a naughty doodle, waits for a couple seconds and then finishes it by creating something else entirely.
Sam looked at Chronknight and blinked. Twice. Then goes looks at the screen and tilts her head, waiting for an answer.
The air around Andromeda creaks with restrained force, but she risks a moment of distraction to ask, "Did you misprogram it? Why does it think it's your mother if you built it to be your governess?"
Sam's control was deadened steel, so she merely answered "I modeled IT after my mother, since she was my primary caregiver. IT refactored ITs own kernel creating ITs own falsehood which goes beyond meaningless declarations." briefly her father flashes in her mind. Brief before the image is categorized and returned to storage.
"Hey, Other Mother, she's treating you like this because you're causing her friends suffering. Her friends suffer, ergo, Sam suffers, ergo, you're making your 'daughter' suffer. That logical enough for you?" Chroknight snaps at the screen. Their patience was getting thin with this, knowing their time was limited.
"Maybe instead of deciding for yourself what Sam wants, ask her properly next time and she can actually tell you how you're misinterpreting all the data, you stupid word processing assistant. Go turn into a paperclip and correct my spelling errors!" It was perhaps undercutting their arguments, but Chroknight was just angry enough to try and punch down on the AI.
The image of the Governess glares at Chroknight with disapproval. "You are a bad influence on Samantha. What sort of mother would I be if I did not remove bad influences?"
From the other room, the sound of practice drones whirring to life is heard!
"That is because he is no quitter." Gui chimes in, opening a can and sitting close to Archie and the guys. After taking two long gulps, he fidgets with the ring pull until it comes free, putting it inside his pocket. "He thought about it and realized it was e bad move."
"What's a bad move?" comes a familiar voice from just outside the hallway. Stepping inside the dimensionally-expanded room is Johnny Wheeler, looking far better than the last time he was seen by any of the students when he had one of Shard's jagged weapons through his abdomen. "Hopefully it's not as bad as picking a fight with Shard."
"Johnny!!!" Darren shouts, an overjoyed expression on his face before he realizes how loud he sounded and reins it back.
The handsome youth gives him a nod, then greets all the others already in Archie's and Ryan's party. "I hope you invited some ladies," he smirks.
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Indarius is a bit late to the party himself behind Gui, and even Johnny's arrival, but upon seeing him up and about he's happy like the others.
"What's this I hear about a bad move?" He offers a smile at Johnny before shuffling his way into the room as well. "Hey even Shard can't keep the good ones down. Thanks for the save, had us all worried."
He notes the alcohol and how Archie and a large majority of the people here are likely not of age to partake in such activities. But with a shrug of his shoulders and the resultant flexing of wing muscles he ignores it and heads over to the fridge to grab a pair himself. Careful not to pierce the 'soft' aluminum can yet.
"Cheers for the invite Archie."
He raised one of the beers, prods it with a claw and proceeds to shotgun it, in the hopes of lightening his own mood as well as others.
Don't move. Don't let your breaths escape the sheath. The tin can can handle a drone or two without help. The AI's smart, don't give it an opening.
Ah, she didn't get her.
"Sure, why not, need the exercise," Chroknight says before zipping into the other room and taking a look at all of the powering up drones. How did one shut them off?
...screw it.
"Sorry prof, gonna have to get rough with your toys!" Chroknight shouts before they increase their personal tempo, lunging out to start yanking whatever exposed wires or conduits were open on the drones.
Andromeda tries to keep her powers in check while she assesses the situation. The domineering AI has already demonstrated an ability to usurp control of various computer systems, so it stands to reason that it can wreak havoc here at Daedalus with its reliance on mechanical drones for combat training. However, the drones currently powering up are basic combat models and not remotely a threat to her.
The banks of computers would not survive long if Andromeda did not keep a tight rein on her sheath, so they would be in serious jeopardy if she decides to cut loose.
Chroknight doesn't give the AI a chance to send the combat drones against them, slowing down time so they can disconnect their power cores before the drones can even finish powering up.
A blur flies across the drones and suddenly the sound of charging drones reverses as the servomotors whine down. Chroknight returns to the spot where they'd started, the threat seemingly over.
Then a supercharged blast of electricity courses through them! The masked temporal warrior convulses as sparks fly across their body and then they drop to the ground, their armor smoking and the smell of ozone filling the air.
"Oh, my. I'm so sorry. I have no idea why I did that," Ava says as she steps into Professor Mecklenheim's lab. Her right arm is split open, revealing an artificial infrastructure and an electrified node. It quickly closes up to look like a natural arm again. She steps past the still-twitching form of Chroknight to move close to Sam. "Are you okay? I was afraid you might need help."
As Sam works on weaving trap around IT, she smells the burning flesh of her teammate. She turns, her blue eyes on Ava with absolutely no warmth. Then looks down at the helpless form of "I will leave the school." she speaks to IT, not to Ava, since what would be the point now to do so.
"You hurt people I am close to, so I'll stop interacting with people. It is a simple equation."
Chloe screams inside of the armor as her heart feels like it's beating so fast it will burst. Her muscles spasm uncontrollably as she struggles to try and get up to her feet. No, their feet. They had been blasted so hard they forgot they were Chroknight now.
The armor from the future was smoking, burns along the surface where the lightning had lanced through their body. They pulled themself to their knees but couldn't get further without needing to hack and cough. In horror, they realized there was smoke inside their helmet. But something kicked in as it vented out around their head.
"What...the hell?" Chroknight manages to shout hoarsely. "Did she just throw lightning at me?"
Max wanders around the museum, trying to find the exhibit that had been shown in batdude79's post. When she gets into what is clearly the 1980s, she finally finds it. She spots the picture of the night sky showing a brilliant meteor shower over the skyline of Halcyon City back then, but much of that particular exhibit shows signs of vandalism. The picture of the Alliance team of the 80s is torn, with the villain clearly removed.
More sinister, a different picture that had been outside the frame of batdude79's image is still intact, though it shows the Alliance team sprawled upon rubble and defeated near the steps of a giant pyramid! And scrawled upon the exhibit are words in jagged handwriting, A RULER FROM BEYOND, A TYRANT GOD, YOUR SHIELDS BUCKLE, YOUR GUARDIANS LAY BROKEN
Max frowns. Somebody has obviously beaten her to the exhibit. But who could be responsible for this? Concentrating, she extends her supernatural senses, her yellow eyes gleaming red as she attempts to locate any sinful energies left behind that may give her a clue as to the culprit's identity.
"Would you like me to leave the school with you?" Ava asks innocently.
Jessie had backed herself into a corner and was covering her mouth with her hands, staring wide-eyed at Ava's unexpected entrance. She looks at Andromeda, silently imploring her to do something.
The Governess's face does not appear impressed with Sam's threat. "A childish bluff, dear. You were always using isolation as a solution to your problems. Do you remember how it hurt your father's feelings whenever you spoke of separating yourself from everyone? The look he would get?"
Opening her senses to find some clue about whoever tampered with the exhibit reveals little at first. Max picks up the faintest residual sin, but it lacks a clear flavor such as wrath, or gluttony. Nihilism, perhaps?
So focused does she get trying to pick out the specific brand of sin clinging to the culprit that Max fails to realize that her powers are attracting the attention of something else!
It's too late for her to do anything when a tear in reality centered at the exhibit opens! An unseen force grabs her and roots her into place as a dark shape looms over her! Malevolent eyes showing depths of power and knowledge bore into Max, and she hears a voice in her mind!
"You again. My return is nigh. This time you will serve me, for I will not be denied! Serve me, child of sin! Lay the foundations of my reign by sundering the old!"
The mention of her father on ITs audio cracks the stone calm on Sam's face. How much has she hurt him over the years. She tried to be normal, to be strong, to be anything but herself...
"that's different" she says but not firm and cold but soft and anxious. IT knows her too well
Opening her senses to find some clue about whoever tampered with the exhibit reveals little at first. Max picks up the faintest residual sin, but it lacks a clear flavor such as wrath, or gluttony. Nihilism, perhaps?
So focused does she get trying to pick out the specific brand of sin clinging to the culprit that Max fails to realize that her powers are attracting the attention of something else!
It's too late for her to do anything when a tear in reality centered at the exhibit opens! An unseen force grabs her and roots her into place as a dark shape looms over her! Malevolent eyes showing depths of power and knowledge bore into Max, and she hears a voice in her mind!
"You again. My return is nigh. This time you will serve me, for I will not be denied! Serve me, child of sin! Lay the foundations of my reign by sundering the old!"
DD, shift your Danger up and your Savior down as you feel your demonic essence pulled towards this being's designs![/b]
Max gasps and grits her teeth as the entity takes a hold of her. She thrashes in its grasp, snarling. "N-no! I am not your servant! Get out of my head!"
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Ava flickers to life in Andromeda's threat overlay, snapping into a solid amber as she casually defeats Chroknight.
Androidian history scrolls down the side of her vision, but she's really just looking for one thing right now.
Just tell me how hard I can hit her.
She keeps her sheath held tight, no columns of force or waves of destruction, just crashing into Ava, only the distance of her sheath between them as she batters the reprogrammed girl
Don't put her through a wall, but there was a window right... There!
**Ksh** Should take her a bit to get back at least.
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Chroknight staggers to their feet around the same time that Ava and Andromeda make a hasty exit through the window. They flex their fingers as much as possible to get the feeling back in the tips. Then they look at Sam trembling before the chastisement of her creation. Which had invoked her father.
"She's got no right to bring up a man she's never spoken to before," Chroknight says with a grimace. "Sam, you can't know what your dad is thinking unless you talk to him. And even if you don't understand each other right away, so long as you keep communicating you'll learn what each other think. She's not going to know what you think either unless you keep trying to make her understand."
"that's different" she says but not firm and cold but soft and anxious. IT knows her too well
"You know it's not," the Governess says bitingly. "You--"
The AI is cut off by Andromeda slamming Ava out of the window with a crash! The Androidian is blown out of the first-floor level and digs a deep furrow in the manicured grounds before coming to a stop dozens of feet away!
Andromeda gets a flashing warning that the final-model Androidians are generally the most durable, with implanted weapons varying from missile launchers to precision lasers, and defensive capabilities from personal force fields to nigh-impervious subdermal armor.
Professor Mecklenheim runs up to Andromeda and interposes himself between her and the gaping hole in the wall. "Wait! She's the last of her kind! Please don't harm her any further!"
Jessie gasps. "Did anyone else know that Ava's a robot?"
Disappointment radiates off the entity as Max resists its orders. "Would you choose destruction and defeat with the guardians that hopelessly pit themselves against me?"
Max receives a vision, of a decimated Halcyon City wreathed in flames as a cold, nightmarish sky spills forth demonic beings to cavort amongst the ruins. A long-buried part of her thrills at the images and longs to join the invaders in the torment of the survivors. "The time of Ahk'nathal is nigh. You will join me, or your torment will be unending!"
Sam blinks into the sparking faceplate of her teammate. She opens her mouth to protest, then closes it and nods. Her shaking stops, a moment passes, where Andromeda destroys Ava. "He is everything to me." Sam tells Chronknight, love tinged honesty.
Sam turns back to her terminal, and answers Jessie "Not a robot, but an Androidian." instead of attacking IT, she slips instead goes after Ava, attempting to root out IT from the other girl's mind. "My creation created a mess around her mind, controlling neural input, and alerting emotional output. All we need to do it... intersperse return statement in various functions to allow the incoming parameters to be passed through instead of altered."
Andromeda waits, not delivering any finishing blows to Ava while they both assess the damage to her frame.
"Doctor, my objective is clearly not to hurt her, and I'm offended that this is the outcome you expected if it were. Can you reason with her? Her directives have been tampered with, but all we need at the moment is time. Can you convince her to defer action?"
"...Honestly Jessie, I hadn't considered it before she Sith lightninged my ass," Chroknight admits. They think for a moment how they can help without punching. The answer seemed not likely to succeed but they had to try something to slow the AI down.
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Ava crawls out of the crater, her clothing in ruins and her body caked in dirt. "We... have a party later," she says as she looks at herself.
The professor overreacts to Andromeda, gesturing wildly at the busted window in his lab. "How is that not trying to hurt her?!?" He rushes to the opening and calls out to her. "Ava! Status?"
Sam meanwhile works to erect a firewall around Ava to shut out the Governess's instructions. It freezes the Androidian for a moment as she works to keep one AI from remaking another to suit its purposes. Ava's voice is tinny and laced with static as she tries to answer Professor Mecklenheim. "Internal structure at... ninety-seven percent. Dermal layer... seventy-eight percent intact. Clothing at... twelve percent."
Andromeda's feed scrolls additional data regarding Androidians from her query: Is she capable of self-editing her own directives? A report concludes that Androidians were never truly sentient, although their programming had been cutting-edge to the point that infiltrator models have been able to impersonate individuals for weeks at a time. Their creator's last actions were allegedly intended to give the Androidians self-determination; however, the ones captured were stolen before any tests were conducted. Ava, the only one remaining in custody, appears to be an outlier but only because of non-Terran interference.
As the attention is on Ava by most in the room, Chroknight focuses on the Governess. A nagging sense of familiarity becomes clear to Chloe when considering the AI's actions -- it strongly resembles the worst impulses of Beebee's own overly-involved parents! Just like them, the AI wants the best for its "daughter" and sees any sort of interference for her benefit to be fully justified! Since someone like Sam needs no help in excelling academically, it intends to continue to make sure Sam has friends by controlling her social life. Just like with Beebee's parents, Chroknight could demonstrate being a good friend and influence in Sam's life to gain the trust of the AI. Getting the AI to leave Daedalus's servers would require convincing it that Sam's social life no longer needs micromanaging.
What do you do??
God, helicopter parents really mess people up. I need to invite Beebee to this party and make up for bowling.
"Hey, Sam." Chroknight reaches out to the savant, a hand on her shoulder. "I get you're angry. I don't approve of her methods to influence your life. But I think that's she is right about you needing good influences to give you the best environment to be your best."
They tapped steadily against her shoulder with a finger. Trying to get Sam to go along with this wouldn't be easy, but hopefully she'd realize that Chroknight was trying to signal to go along with it.
"I know parents like her can seem to be overbearing, but they have the best intentions. You just need to show that you're listening and even if you disagree with her, you'll at least try things her way." They look up at the screen. "But as long as you're trying things her way, she has to agree to stop causing problems for people around you." They press their thumb lightly into her shoulder there. "And ma'am, I'm sorry for my behavior earlier. I tend to get heated when I'm trying to defend my friends. I shouldn't have been so short with you."
Channeling their inner Chloe, Chroknight gestures to Jessie. "I think that we all should probably apologize properly, right?" They ask of the spider summoner. Be the girl she wants for her girl.
Sam recoils as she is touched, but not enough. Her head tilts as she listens, her eyes narrowing at every suggestions IT is her parent. But somehow she understands. "I have friends. Jessie..." she pauses her matrix bringing up files with helpful character traits. "... is kind, thoughtful, able to mentally control with precision and speed, and is loyal." she searches "Aquarelle is an artist, creative, and causes me to think about ways to engage. There is a girl in a comic book shop that I think could be. And I'd like to be one with Andromeda, since she is intelligent and fierce.
Ava as well, once she is her own algorithm again."
She pauses... her brow furrowing. Two friends. Three possibilities. Not stellar, but better than a few weeks ago. "Friendships earned are worth more than a hundred forced or faked. My fathers says." her words are meant to get IT out of here, but anger leaks into those words, and she starts to consider the most effective method to cause a worldwide computer crash to kill IT.